What was the purpose of all soul machines?

[juanval]

I know the soul machine from Sun in Shadow was built in order to generate the current gods because there weren't gods before.

 

1 But why there are more soul machines scattered in the region?

2 Did they have other purposes?

 

Thanks in advance

[Skazz]

If I remember correctly, they were basically relays redirecting all the souls across the land to the master machine in Sun-in-Shadow.

[Wormerine]

Most of them were for harvesting souls and moving them around toward the big adra machine in Sun in Shadow. Weidwen legacy was result of their use. There was the odd one in Defiance Bay which instead of harvesting souls would bind them to the body, resulting in ghouls if one such were killed. Exact use of such nature is unknown (beside recreating familiar undead infested zone for nostalgia sake).

[Skazz]

Oh, huh. Now I feel dense for not making the connection between Heritage Hill and Athkatla's Graveyard District.

 

I'm also kind of sad now that HH has no equivalent of that guy who willed himself to life out of sheer indignation at the cheap funeral he's been given by his family.

 

I chuckle like a dumbass every time I think about that encounter.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Skazz

[juanval]

Most of them were for harvesting souls and moving them around toward the big adra machine in Sun in Shadow. Weidwen legacy was result of their use. There was the odd one in Defiance Bay which instead of harvesting souls would bind them to the body, resulting in ghouls if one such were killed. Exact use of such nature is unknown (beside recreating familiar undead infested zone for nostalgia sake).

Waidwen legacy is in recent times, but in Engwithian times, did the other machines have other purposes?

[Skazz]

 

Most of them were for harvesting souls and moving them around toward the big adra machine in Sun in Shadow. Weidwen legacy was result of their use. There was the odd one in Defiance Bay which instead of harvesting souls would bind them to the body, resulting in ghouls if one such were killed. Exact use of such nature is unknown (beside recreating familiar undead infested zone for nostalgia sake).

Waidwen legacy is in recent times, but in Engwithian times, did the other machines have other purposes?

 

 

Wasn't it implied that they were part of the original setup used to kickstart the gods?

[tarmangani]

The purpose of the machine in Heritage Hill (Teir Nowneth) seems to involve ripping and tethering souls. Kana's horrified by this possibility, seeing no objective but madness, and so proposes that Nowneth was experimental, an early-stage construction. His theory makes sense; as the Engwithans developed their soul manipulation science, they'd have to start somewhere. They'd probably make some machines without a clear purpose to generations eons later. You see this theme in the Endless Paths, too, where we learn that Gabrannos experimented with the elements in an early attempt to manipulate souls.

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Personally, the game left me with a very strong impression that the machines have area of effect(lol) and they needed them over all of Engwith(modern Dyrwood and Eir Glanfath) in order to get maximum efficiency...

 

Now we just need the killer robots... err, vessels. 

[Rheios]

Hopefully this isn't too much of a thread necro but I think the Heritage Hill machine was a prototype machine for the mechanism that was later used in Sun in Shadow to create the eternal soul prison. 

As far as the why to it being activated at heritage hill? I believe it was just to cause views to turn further against animancy and maybe sneak in and harvest some remaining souls later for the Sun in Shadow machine.